With healthcare providers calling for a bill to guarantee the value of each National Health Insurance (NHI) point is at least NT$1, Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) yesterday said it might harm the NHI’s global budget payment system and should be further deliberated.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) and several other KMT legislators have proposed amending Article 62 of the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法), adding a clause that says “when the [NHI] point value is less than NT$1, the government should supplement it to NT$1,” ensuring that a point equals at least NT$1.
The draft bill is scheduled to be reviewed today by the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Eight healthcare providers’ associations issued a statement on Tuesday expressing their support for the bill proposed by Su.
The statement said the current NHI global budget payment system forces healthcare facilities to bear the pressure of rising health insurance costs, so although the public is very satisfied with low medical costs, healthcare facilities are struggling to survive.
The NHI’s global budget payment system is an “expenditure cap” system with “floating” point values, used to precisely match the predetermined budget, as the total expenditure claimed by healthcare facilities for their services is reimbursed based on an adjusted amount — multiplied by the point value.
The non-fixed “floating” point value is retrospectively determined every three months after hospital claims are reviewed and it is negatively correlated with nationwide healthcare service volume, so a higher overall service volume leads to lower point value, as well as a lower payment for each service.
The statement said the point value had dropped to as low as between 0.6 and 0.8, which causes unreasonable payments to healthcare providers and is collapsing the NHI system.
Healthcare facilities are not like private businesses as hospitals only receive about 80 percent of NHI income and their medical fee standards are controlled by the health authorities, as well as the NHI global budget payment system’s predetermined “expenditure cap,” so they cannot increase charges or transfer the additional costs to patients, it said.
Facing rising costs and inflation, many healthcare providers are leaving their jobs due to lower salaries and many medical students are unwilling to take positions in departments with more difficult healthcare procedures, it added.
The statement said the law should be amended and the NHI’s global budget payment system changed from a “expenditure cap” system to a “expenditure target” system, meaning that when the point value is less than NT$1, the government should make up the deficit for sustainable development of the healthcare system.
The healthcare providers’ associations included the Taiwan Hospital Association, the Taiwan Medical Center Association, the Taiwan Regional Hospital Association, the Taiwan Community Hospital Association, the Taiwan Medical Association, the Taiwan Union of Nurses Association, the Taiwan Nongovernmental Hospitals and Clinics Association and the Taiwan College of Healthcare Executives.
Hsueh yesterday said that the bill might harm the NHI’s global budget payment system and the issue is unlikely to be adequately solved by only revising an article of the act, so it should be further deliberated.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS